Mission Viejo, CA

Forecaster (First American CoreLogic) predicts home prices will increase 9.5 percent by next August. The forecaster then is predicting and increase in median home price by $48,000. Now that is an increase we will all enjoy.

As usual the price gain would put Orange County out in front of most of the nation. We have as a state been one of the last into a recession and one of the first out of a recession.

Some of the other projections for other areas:

• Los Angeles County up 6.3%
• Miami, Dade County up 6.1%
• Chicago up 4.2%
• Washington, D.C. up 3.5%
• Boston up 3.0%
• New York City up 2.3%
• Houston up 1.4%
• Atlanta up 0.2%
• Dallas up 0.2%
• Philadelphia up 0.8%

Another forecaster (UCLA Anderson Forecast) predicted that Orange County home prices will increase between 15.9 and 16.6 percent in 2010.

Forecaster and economist Mark Schniepp predicts that home price increase will be 30 percent by mid 2012.

The inventory in Orange County California is very low. The low inventory is reflected in foreclosures (bank owned) and in Short Sales as well as the traditional properties for sale. Foreclosures are just 4 percent of the total properties on the market in our area. Short Sales represent 27 percent of the Orange County listings.

The low inventory is causing stress on the market. By that I mean competition on a given property is causing, on average, properties to sell just over 3 percent above the asking price. This is specifically happening on those properties under $500,000.

It is difficult to pin down but the expected markdt time for short sales about 2 months. We show a lower inventory in distressed properties. In October 2008 there were 42.8 percent of the total listings and now they are 30.8 percent. That means you could possibly get a regular sale of a home without the bank intervention most of the time.

We all know the politicians will spend more than they have and will try anything to get us to pay for it. California has come up with a way to have the public pay first and they'll give it back to us at a later date. Right, I'll believe that! This is from the Wall Street Journal.

Desperation grabs for revenue are nothing new in politics, but California is once again leading the way in creative financing.

To help close yet another gaping budget deficit, now estimated to be $7 billion this year and reach as high as $20 billion next, Sacramento lawmakers have authorized a 10% increase in the amount of taxes withheld from worker paychecks starting November 1 and through 2010. The extra withholding tax will reduce Californians' take-home pay by about $1.7 billion for the year. But the lawmakers say this isn't a tax increase. OK, how about calling it a compulsory interest-free loan from taxpayers to the state?

According to the Franchise Tax Board, 10,004,000 Californians overpaid their state taxes last year and received an average refund of $903. The withholding penalty is expected to snatch between $20 and $90 a month from middle-class families. For those feeling the pinch of recession and living paycheck to paycheck, that penalty will hurt.

Of course, the government is obliged to return this money next spring when workers get their tax refunds, so this is the ultimate budget gimmick. It borrows from taxpayers now and deepens the budget hole next year. And we almost hate to ask: What happens come April if the state doesn't have enough money to pay the tax refunds it owes its citizens? Will taxpayers get IOUs the way state contractors did last year when Sacramento ran out of money?

Meanwhile, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the legislature now face their sixth "extraordinary session" to balance the budget. Income tax rates went up last year by 0.25%, bringing the top rate to 10.55%, but receipts are already coming in $1 billion below projections, according to the state controller.

The politicians could use this continuing crisis as an opportunity to reform the state's tax code with lower rates and fewer deductions and loopholes, as recently proposed by the governor's tax reform commission. But that plan has been panned by the ruling classes in Sacramento. They claim to want to steal only from the rich, but their latest withholding ruse is showing that they'll steal from anyone with a paycheck.

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A24

Good news on the FHA front the Spot Loan Approval process is being eliminated. The processes are being streamlined to allow for uncomplicated condominium project approvals eliminating the need to approve units on a "spot loan" basis. Begining on December 7,2009.

FHA is implementing a new approval process for Condominium Projects. FHA is going to allow the lenders to determine project eligibility, review project documentation and certify to compliance FHA requirements. This is much the same process lenders certify compliance when FNMA or FHLMC loans are involved. FHA will continue to maintain a list of Approved Condominiums on their website for ease of determining approval after the lenders certify and approve.

Until now when a lender did a spot approval of a condominium project, it was only for that particular real estate transaction. The entire project was not deemed FHA approved because of the spot approval. Now it will be a fully approved project, entered on the FHA website and any lender may now fund FHA loans in that development.

If a project is listed on the FHA website as Rejected or Withdrawn, the only approval process allowed will be submitting all documents to FHA for project approval. Lenders are not permitted to over turn FHA rejected or withdrawn condominium projects.

Condominium project approvals will expire after two years from the date it has been placed on the list of approved condominiums. FHA will require recertification to determine the project is still in compliance with the owner-occupancy and other conditions are met.

There are several Project Eligibility Requirements that stand out.

1) No more than 15 percent of the total units can be in arrears (more than 30 days past due) of their condominium association fee payment.

2) At least 50 percent of the units of a project must be owner occupied.

3) Projects consisting of four or more units may not have more than 30 percent of the total units encumbered with FHA loans.

Here are the top ten most expensive homes in Mission Viejo, CA. Eight of the 10 are on Lake Mission Viejo, which has consistently been the most expensive real estate in the city.

• $1,599,000 - 5 bed, 5 bath, 4700 sq ft, 8200 lot
• $1,699,900 - 5 bed, 5 bath, 5800 sq ft, 10,000 lot
• $2,350.000 - 4 bed, 5 bath, 4000 sq ft, 6700 lot
• $2,375,000 - 4 bed, 5 bath, 4500 sq ft, 75000 lot
  
• $2,399,000 - 5 bed, 7 bath, 4200 sq ft, 7200 lot
  
• $2,400,000 - 4 bed, 5 bath, 6850 sq ft, 9800 lot
  
• $2,599,900 - 3 bed, 4 bath, 4200 sq ft, 7280 lot
  
• $2,650,000 - 5 bed, 4 bath, 5300 sq ft, 7800 lot
  
• $2,895,000 - 5 bed, 5 bath, 5500 sq ft, 7800 lot
  
• $2,999,000 - 4 bed, 5 bath, 5400 sq ft, 7245 lot

Average DOM (days on market) = 123

Click here to view these listings.